Every time I re-watch the ending of Halo 3 I get the chills. I’m not sure what it is, but the story of Master Chief sparks emotion in me that not many movies even can. It’s like Titanic for dudes—but without the Leo and Kate car sex and class struggles. Whatever the reason is for that emotion, that strong connection that Halo makes with fans is important to Microsoft, and they want to do more with it to sell a bunch of copies of Halo 4 later this year.

So, with the goal of bringing the series to more people—longtime fans and people who have never previously played the games—Microsoft has invested more money than ever before in live action. A new live-action series, Forward Unto Dawn has been announced that will get everyone on the same page in a non-intimidating way before the launch of Halo 4. Slotted to air exclusively on Halo Waypoint and Machinima, the series will tell “an origins story that teaches you a lot of different facets of the [Halo] universe.” says Frank O’Connor, 343 Industries franchise development director.

The series is planned to launch in weekly 15-minute installments for five weeks during the time leading up to Halo 4’s release date on November 6^th 2012. More details about Forward Unto Dawn will be revealed during Comic-Con this July.

Hopefully this gets us one step closer to a full-length Halo movie.

Our exclusive Halo community giveaway, Farewell to a Legend, has come to an end. First of all, we’d like to thank all of our great Halo community partners for helping to make this possible. Halo.Bungie.Org, HaloTracker, GrifballHub, Halo4News and HaloCommunity—you guys are awesome and we thank you for making this a proper salute to FPS Freek Legendary. We hope to work with you all again later in the year!

For Farewell to a Legend we put together one of our most exciting and unique prize packages to date. One lucky Halo fan is about to receive a limited edition Halo: Reach Xbox 360 console bundle, a rare Master Chief vs. The Flood commemorative WETA statue and a pair of FPS Freek Legendary signed by Master Chief himself, Mr. Steve Downes!

Without further ado, the winner of all this great swag is Mario Torres! We’ll be contacting you via the email address you provided very soon.

As promised, we’re also sending an extra token of thanks to the site(s) that went above and beyond to spread the word to their communities—HaloTracker.com and Halo.Bungie.Org. You guys were so close in the end we felt both of you deserved a little something extra—so you both get an autographed picture of Master Chief to do with whatever you like. It pains me to see these autographed photos leave my desk (where they’ve been hanging out for the past few weeks making my workspace much more epic) but at least I know they’ll be going to a loving home. Congratulations!

There are still a few FPS Freek Legendary’s left in stock so get them while you still can.

The pilot episode of the fan made Halo: Helljumper series hit YouTube last week. If you didn’t know, Helljumper is a short series of films that follows the life of one human ODST from his enlistment in the UNSC before the Human-Covenant War to around the Fall of Reach. The series, which is a spin-off of the Tobias Brickell Halo: Evolutions – Essential Tales of the Halo Universe short story “Dirt” was teased late in 2011 to a very captivated Halo audience.

In the first episode, main character Gage Yevgenny has just been saved from a losing firefight by a rookie soldier on the colony of New Jerusalem. Instead of letting the Rookie complete his rescue, Yevgenny forces him to listen to his story of the war, so that hopefully he doesn’t repeat the same mistakes. This prompts  a series of flashes into Yevgenny’s past that’s littered with cool special effects, an  evoking musical score and some rather awkward acting and dialogue—“You coming on to me, Soldier?” and “Excuse me, miss, do you happen to have a map… ‘cause I’m lost in your eyes” are a couple of my personal favorites.

Bad acting aside, it’s a cool concept that represents the highest form of video game love.

The next episode is due out on February 15^th.

Do you like Halo: Reach?  Do you have an iPhone?  Do you like getting great Apps for free?  Our friends, the creators of the fantastic Virtual Coach series for iPhone, have created an App that every Halo: Reach player should check out.  And the makers have been cool enough to give us 10 free download codes to gift to you guys.  The first 10 people to tell us why they must have this App get a code!

From iTunes:

1.99 GETS YOU THE MOST ADVANCED HALO APP ON THE MARKET!

-Want to get better at Halo Reach? HRVC can do that!
-Want to track your aggregate stats and medals? HRVC can do that!
-Want to chat with gamers around the globe? HRVC can do that?
-Want to have birds eye view of each map with weapon spawns? HRVC can do that!
-Want to draw set ups on the maps? HRVC can do that
-Want to time power weapons? HRVC can do that!
-Want to track your ten game K/D and Win/Loss? HRVC can do that!
-Want to read strats and tips from pro players? HRVC can do that!
Plain and simple HRVC has every feature a gamer could need.

Why buy a separate app for a weapon timer, one for tracking stats, and one for maps? HRVC has it all for the price of 1.

Featuring the GAMER LOUNGE. The first Halo Reach iPhone GPS Based chat room. The Gamer Lounge is the Social Network for gamers! Need to find players for your team? Looking for a scrim? Trying to recruit for your clan? Looking for the latest tips and tricks? The Gamer Lounge has it all.

Halo Reach Virtual Coach is the first Halo Reach app on the market for competitive gamers. Ready to have the edge over your opponents in Halo Reach? HRVC is for you. Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned vet we have the information and tools that you need to become a better player.
Halo Reach Virtual Coach features:
- Strategies for every aspect of the game from professional players and the developers
- High Definition bird’s eye view of each map including weapon locations
- Route Tracer that allows you to draw rush routes and game plans on your phone screen with your finger tip
- Ability to track all of your Halo Reach stats with HaloCharts.com in-app
- The Gamer Lounge. A GPS based chat room that allows gamers to meet and chat by location.
- MLG Weapon Spawn Timer
- 10% off of KontrolFreek Grips

We are always adding new updates, all for free!
The Virtual Coach Series is designed by competitive gamers, for competitive gamers.

Preview on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/halo-reach-virtual-coach/id372822095?mt=8

Photos courtesy of Dorkly.com

I had big plans for today.  I was going to create a really great post about the top-ten games to play while celebrating 4/20.  It was going to be epic!  I had big plans for today—and had every intention of doing this—but then I got… well, you know.

Anyway, as to not leave you totally disappointed, I thought I would at-least share with you my top- FIVE games to be enjoyed on this joyous day.  So, sit back. Relax.  And enjoy 420.

 5.  Brutal Legend – I’m pretty certain that the man behind the game, Tim Schafer, assumes that you're high.  You’d have to be to buy it—because it pretty much sucks otherwise. But, Jack Black is funny and the semi-open world style suits stoners just fine.  And although the visuals feel dated, the rock ‘n’ roll art style and music will keep you playing.

 4.  Halo – It doesn’t really matter which one, it only matters that it’s Halo.  The easy to pick-up-and-play shooter fares well for kiddies puffing the magic dragon after school and the millions of “big kids” who still live in their parents’ “finished” garage that puff all day.  I mean, how many of you don’t have some form of “420” in your Gamertag?

 3. Burnout – ‘Nuf said.

  2.  Guitar Hero – Whichever of the half-dozen iterations you choose is up to you, the idea is the same.  Jam to your favorite songs.  Hold fake, plastic instrument.  Follow along while colors flow down the screen—you can almost taste them!  It’s like Blink 182 without the “blink” (whatever that means).

 1.  Grand Theft Auto – The obvious and quintessential time-waster.  It doesn’t get any better.  What time is it, you say?  You mean I’ve been killing pedestrians and driving around aimlessly for 22-hours?  GTA’s open world and great radio stations act as digital Yoo-Hoo for your parched mouth.  Just remember, after you “use” a hooker, kill her and take your money back.  It’s just poor business otherwise.

 Stoner-able Mention: Saints Row – It’s like Volition really knows you.  You see, Saints Row is a lot like GTA but you can actually smoke marijuana in the game, which creates a strange, stoner paradox (just who’s controlling who?)*.

*Smoking Marijuana is illegal and you should never smoke it… near a cop.

I love co-op as much as the next guy.   Well, maybe a little more than the next guy.  Okay, so I'm a junkie for co-op, whatever.  And I have been to some pretty shady places to get my next fix--like Army of Two, and yes, even 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.  Sometimes I just need a break from playing competitive multiplayer with a-holes and a nice, casual game of co-op is just what the doctor ordered.

So that's why I'm always disappointed when a top-tier game comes out and there's no cooperative campaign to be had.  I have seen a trend building by which more games are including, at the least, an independent co-op mode.  But this rarely cools my importunate co-op fever.   Let’s focus the stank-eye on Ghostbusters: The Video Game for a moment.  I loved the campaign—and the included cooperative multiplayer was fun.  But in a game so naturally fit for cooperative play, the lack of a true co-op campaign seemed like a serious missed opportunity.

Now, here comes Modern Warfare 2, ready to set the world on fire with its Michael Bay-esque campaign and top-notch multiplayer modes—the perfect recipe for an unforgettable co-op romp!  But to my dismay, the game will only include an independent co-op mode.  I'm sure it will probably be fun for a few minutes at least, but why do game developers continue to shatter my dreams?

Well, Infinity Ward's reasoning for not including a full co-op campaign is sound: they don't want their vision of the campaign experience to change by adding another person to the mix that could break the immersion.  I know that they are just protecting their game from cut-scene-chatterboxes and run-ahead-and-steal-all-the-kills-guy, but I just wish that I could have made that decision for myself.  Many times I like to play a game through the first time by myself and then invite a friend (not an obnoxious stranger) to play along with me.  This assures me the optimal gaming experience and adds replayability to a single-player campaign that I would otherwise never play again.

What do you guys think?  Are your cooperative fixes met by these independent co-op modes, or do you think full co-op campaigns need to become the standard?